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Leviticus 22:17 - 23:14 Sabbath

by fol CHURCH on June 18, 2019

As God continues to let His people know how to live out a Holy life that is pleasing to Him, he talks about His Sabbath and the celebrations that land on this day! Times to remember His goodness and celebrate all He has done.

Stopping for Sabbath can sometimes be hard and remaining in that resting place can be harder. We know the importance of this is huge, as this brings us into who Jesus is! Jesus can be our Sabbath rest because He is "Lord of the Sabbath" (Matthew 12:8). As God incarnate, He decides the true meaning of the Sabbath because He created it, and He is our Sabbath rest in the flesh. When the Pharisees criticized Him for healing on the Sabbath, Jesus reminded them that even they, sinful as they were, would not hesitate to pull a sheep out of a pit on the Sabbath. Because He came to seek and save His sheep who would hear His voice (John 10:3,27) and enter into the Sabbath rest He provided by paying for their sins, He could break the Sabbath rules. He told the Pharisees that people are more important than sheep and the salvation He provided was more important than rules. By saying, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath" (Mark 2:27), Jesus was restating the principle that the Sabbath rest was instituted to relieve man of his labours, just as He came to relieve us of our attempting to achieve salvation by our works.

We no longer rest for only one day, but forever cease our labouring to attain God’s favour. Jesus is our rest from works now, just as He is the door to heaven, where we will rest in Him forever.

The purpose of Sabbath is not simply to rejuvenate yourself in order to do more production, nor is it just seeking good things. The purpose of Sabbath is to enjoy your God, life in general, what you have accomplished in the world through his help, and the freedom you have in the Gospel—the freedom from slavery to any material object or human expectation. The Sabbath is a sign of the real hope that we have in the world to come with JESUS!

 

 

 

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Lord, we thank you for your Sabbath rest! We thank you for that way we can remain in this resting place, as we remain in you. Jesus, as we do this, may we stop and remember the times you have saved us, provided for us and never given up on us! We thank you Jesus!

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